Jenn Simmons, MD speaks to breast cancer survivors about the physical and emotional toll after treatment: cognitive problems, sleep loss, depression, pain, sexual dysfunction, weight gain. She argues survivors are denied standard menopausal care and advocates for equitable access to hormone replacement therapy when done correctly.
Chapters
One of the things that we are absolutely, positively not talking enough about is what it looks like after breast cancer treatment. And we tell all of these women who we treat for breast cancer that they should be grateful to be alive. And they are grateful. But it is very hard to feel grateful when you can't think, you can't remember your words, you can't sleep, you are depressed, you are anxious, you have palpitations, your bones ache, your joints ache, you've gained weight, your breasts are absent or deformed, you have no libido, you have no energy. Sex is unwanted and painful. Your relationship is suffering or absent. I mean, it is really hard to feel grateful when you are in this situation. And this is what I call the forgotten woman. This is the woman who has been through breast cancer treatment and then essentially abandoned when the rest of the world has menopausal symptoms and they have access to hormone replacement and viable solutions. The breast cancer population, by and large, has been abandoned. They have been left to either their own devices or they are given absolutely meaningless, not helpful alternatives. And instead of having access to hormone replacement, and I for one, am changing that because there is adequate data to prove that hormone replacement is safe when done correctly, even in the breast cancer population. And so I am making sure that women who have been treated for breast cancer have access to the same care that everyone else has abscond access to, because they are people too, and they deserve to thrive after their breast cancer diagnosis.
